Help:User rights

A user right is a special type of permission a user has to make a change or perform a task for a community. A "user rights group" is a set of permissions or abilities. The most commonly recognized user rights group is an "admin", also known as a sysop user rights group. A list of user rights by groups can be seen at Special:ListGroupRights.

To add or remove users from these groups, admins or bureaucrats can go to Special:UserRights. Some groups can only be added or removed by bureaucrats or Fandom staff.

Some communities have custom groups, but the information below applies to most.

Contents

Local level

Anyone who visits Fandom can view and read pages. Unregistered (anonymous) users also usually have the ability to edit and add pages to the wiki, though some communities require logging into a Fandom account first.

Bureaucrats

Bureaucrats have the ability to manipulate user rights, as well as block and unblock users, so this right is generally used in addition to the administrator group.

They have the ability to promote and revoke rollback, Content Moderator, and administrator rights as well as appointing new bureaucrats. While they cannot directly remove another user's bureaucrat status, they can remove their own. Bureaucrats also have the ability to remove a user's bot status in case the bot is malfunctioning, but bot flag requests are handled by staff after being approved (by either a bureaucrat or the community).

Admins enjoy all the privileges of discussions moderators, so admins do not need to be put in to that group in addition to being an admin.

Chat Moderators

Chat Moderators are users who can moderate a community's chat room. They can ban users from chat, which will kick a user out of the chat and prevent them from returning until a chat moderator, discussions moderator, or admin unbans them from the user's contributions page or until the ban expires.

Admins and Discussions Moderators enjoy all the privileges of Chat Moderators, so Admins or Discussions Moderators do not need to be put in to that group in addition to being an Admin or Discussions Moderator.

Rollbacks

Anyone can revert vandalism and bad-faith edits, but it takes a couple of clicks in the page history to get it done. The "rollback" permission allows a user to undo bad edits with one click: by using the rollback link on diff pages, the user's contributions page, or the list of recent changes. The edit summary for a rollback edit is (Reverted edits by X (talk) to last version by Y).

Content moderators and admins have this permission by default. It can also be granted to other users by adding them to the rollback group. See Special:ListUsers/rollback for a member list.

The tag next to the user's profile can't be seen unless the UserTags JS script is enabled on your wiki.

Founders

A community's founder is automatically given admin and bureaucrat rights during the community's creation. This allows them to edit the community's skin and format. As more contributors join, it's a good idea for founders to appoint trusted users as admins, content moderators, discussions moderators, chat moderators, and rollbackers. Founders have a "FOUNDER" tag on their profile, unless it's either changed on MediaWiki:User-identity-box-group-founder or they later lose their bureaucrat and admin rights.

Bots

A "bot" (short for robot) is any automated process, program, or script that makes it easier for a user to make tedious or repetitive edits and actions on a community. When a bot is running in quick succession, the recent changes log can sometimes be overtaken, making it harder to spot more substantial edits by regular users. Giving an account a "bot flag" will hide these edits from the recent changes list (although any editor can still choose to see them by clicking "Show bots").

On Fandom, a user who wishes to use a bot should set up a separate account for it, then talk with either other community members or a bureaucrat to ask whether they approve of the creation of a bot. After receiving approval, the bot owner or a bureaucrat can request the bot be flagged for that wiki.

Having this status causes "BOT" to appear next to the username on the bot's user-page.

CheckUsers

CheckUsers have the ability to check another user's IP address, as well as the ability to check what users have edited using a particular IP address, and view the CheckUser log. This ability is generally only available to Fandom Staff, Wiki Managers, Helpers, and VSTF, but on very large communities where sockpuppetry is a major problem, access can be considered.

Global level

Staff

Staff members are Fandom employees and they have full access to all Fandom communities and features. They are shown in Special:ListStaff on any wiki, and often have a special Staff signature () when they sign their comments. The Staff have tools to support them in helping to maintain all of Fandom. Please see Help:Contacting Fandom for details on how to contact Fandom Staff. These users will have a "STAFF" tag on their profile unless changed on MediaWiki:User-identity-box-group-staff.

Wiki Managers

Wiki Managers are part-time staff members assigned to specific wikis. They are here to support your wiki's community and help it grow and thrive, as well as serving as a liaison with a direct line of contact to full-time Fandom staff. Therefore, they have extended user rights on all Fandom communities. See Special:ListGlobalUsers/wiki-manager for a member list. Wiki Managers will have a "WIKI MANAGER" tag on their profile.

Content Team Members

Content Team Members are part-time staff members. They are here to help your wikis grow and thrive, and are responsible for ensuring that the latest and best content is up on our communities as soon as information is available. Therefore, they have extended user rights on all Fandom communities. See Special:ListGlobalUsers/content-team-member for a member list. Content Team Members will have a "CONTENT TEAM MEMBER" tag on their profile.

Vanguard

Vanguard is a group of Fandom users who have volunteered to help make Fandom's content available on the widest possible range of devices. To do so, Vanguard users have a few extra rights that allow them to edit a Fandom community's interface. See Special:ListGlobalUsers/vanguard for a member list. Vanguard users will have a "VANGUARD" tag on their profile.

VSTF

The Volunteer Spam Task Force, abbreviated to VSTF, are experienced and involved users who combat cross-wiki spam and vandalism. Therefore, they have extended user rights on all Fandom communities, including access to many additional tools that help them to detect spam and vandalism. See Special:ListGlobalUsers/vstf for a member list. VSTF users will have a "VSTF" tag on their profile unless changed at User-Identity-box-group-VSTF.

Helpers

Helpers are volunteers working to support and improve non-English Fandom communities. Because they exercise staff tasks in their respective language, they share many user rights with Fandom staff. See Special:ListHelpers for a member list. Users in this group will have a "HELPER" tag on their profile unless changed at MediaWiki:User-identity-box-group-helper and a special tag () in their signatures.

Global Discussions moderators

Global Discussions moderators are a group of users with permissions related to the Discussions feature. Their focus is on community management, community building, and social concerns within the Discussions feature specifically. They are assigned to work on communities that have requested help or that have been identified by Fandom staff. See Special:ListGlobalUsers/global-discussions-moderator for a member list. Users in this group will have a "GLOBAL DISCUSSIONS MODERATOR" tag on their profile.

Community Council

The Community Council is Fandom's product testing and feedback group. Members of the Community Council are selected by Fandom Staff to provide preliminary feedback on new features and products that are under development. See Special:ListGlobalUsers/council for a member list. Users in this group will have a "COUNCILOR" tag on their profile.

Authenticated

Authenticated users are the official accounts of large companies, typically from the video game industry. The group signifies that the veracity of the account was checked for by Staff. They are users who are notable or famous, such as a game designer or developer, or a renowned musician. A user must be verified by Fandom Staff as legitimately being that important person before they get this right.

Content Volunteers

Content Volunteers are users who have additional tools available to work on content-related tasks in non-English communities. These tools are:

Having this status causes the tag "CONTENT VOLUNTEER" to appear next to user's username in their profile.

Volunteer Developers

The Volunteer Developers program is an initiative that aims to enable technically skilled members of the Fandom community to contribute to Fandom not only by editing and wiki administration but also by fixing bugs and improving Fandom's software. These users will have a "VOLUNTEER DEVELOPER" tag on their profile.

Other groups

Why might rights be removed?

Bureaucrats can remove admin or some other rights when they feel it necessary. In most cases, the community should be consulted.

Only Fandom Staff, Wiki Managers, Helpers, and the user themselves can remove Bureaucrat rights from a user, but this rarely happens. Examples of situations when staff will remove bureaucrat or other rights include:

The rights were abused.

A user is inactive and the community asks for the removal.

A user's account is globally disabled and a member of the community asks for the removal.

Community request, after a discussion among more active users.

They are found to be editing abusively as an alternative account (sockpuppet).

They have used their rights to edit the interface into something very unsuitable.

In some cases, blocked users are also prevented from posting on their own message wall/editing their user talk page if the "cannot edit own talk page" checkbox is checked when blocking the user. If the autoblock feature is enabled then it will prevent IP addresses used by the blocked user from editing.

How can I find different users?

See Special:ListUsers and choose the "administrators", "rollback", or "bureaucrats" check boxes and click "Show". You will also see a column showing the date of the user's most recent edit, so you can find users that have been active most recently.